European Parliament
Abitbol (EDD ).
(FR)
Madam President, Commissioner, I admit that your frankness has disarmed me somewhat. You have admitted your defeat and you have even acknowledged, through the voice of Commissioner Fischler, that you were wrong to pay in advance by sacrificing the common agricultural policy while the United States, with which you have forged an alliance which is, as it happens, somewhat unnatural, have not made any such sacrifice.
This defeat is that of the European institutions themselves. You have committed errors not
intuitu personae
– others would doubtless have committed worse – but
ex officio
. During your speech, you raised the right questions, with the exception of one: the relevance of granting an exclusive negotiating mandate to the Commission on behalf of the 25 countries. The Group of 21 has 21 negotiators. The Cairns Group, which used to have 17 countries, had 17 negotiators. That is the question which needs to be asked and I hope that the Intergovernmental Conference will also ask it seriously.

